Transport costs, which were seen to have balanced off rising house prices, have actually decreased by 1.9%, lower than the decrease of 3% that Statistics New Zealand reported in October. This also means transport costs have decreased by 5.6% for the year ending September, rather than 6.7% as originally stated.

The calculation inconsistencies are due to a “manual processing error”, Statistics New Zealand said in an announcement. The error specifically related to the measurement of lower ACC levies for light vehicles, which came into effect in the September quarter.

Updates to CPI reporting for September quarter, full year

Series

September 2016 quarter

Quarterly (%)

Annual (%)

Originally published

Corrected

Originally published

Corrected

CPI

0.2

0.3

0.2

0.4

Non-tradables

0.3

0.5

2.1

2.4

Transport

-3.0

-1.9

-6.7

-5.6

Source: Statistics New Zealand

Statistics New Zealand corrected the Consumer Price Index now so customers have the best possible information to make decisions, it says in the statement. They have notified the Reserve Bank ahead of the upcoming OCR announcement and the Treasury’s Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update.

Statistics New Zealand is due to release its Household Living Costs Price Index on 8 November.